Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Australian billionaire James Packer is among the investors lined up to back Architect Capital’s deal to take a minority stake in OnlyFans, the streaming platform used by sex workers whose owner died in March.
OnlyFans has agreed a deal to sell a stake of about 15 per cent to San Francisco-based Architect Capital at a valuation of $3.1bn, according to people familiar with the matter. The stake sale, which the FT first reported last month, is set to be announced as early as Friday.
The decision to sell a small stake in the UK-headquartered business will leave control of it with the family trust led by Katie Chudnovsky, the widow of OnlyFans owner Leonid Radvinsky. The late Ukrainian-American entrepreneur acquired Fenix International, the company that owns and operates OnlyFans, in 2018.
Architect’s proposal is financed by a special-purpose vehicle with money raised from a group of investors including family offices, according to people familiar with the matter.
Backers include funds associated with Packer, best known in Australia as a former casino and media mogul, as well as Sam Lessin, a partner at venture capital firm Slow Ventures, the people said.
With a net worth of nearly A$5bn ($3.6bn) according to the Australian Financial Review’s Rich List, Packer is among Australia’s richest people, following the sale of his family’s media assets and of his large stake in gambling empire Crown Resorts to private equity group Blackstone.
The final details of the deal are still being sketched out and the transaction was close to signing late on Thursday, the people said.
The deal for an initially small stake in OnlyFans — which has risen to notoriety given its use by sex workers, celebrities and sports stars to reach their audiences — leaves the potential for a further stake of equity in the future.
The stake sale under discussion follows years of stop-start efforts to bring outside investment into OnlyFans, which in recent months were overshadowed by Radvinsky’s battle with cancer.
At one point, the group was in talks to sell a majority of the business, which would have commanded a much higher valuation, according to people familiar with the process.
The deal will also see OnlyFans look to create new financial services alongside Architect for its creators, who often struggle to access normal banking facilities, according to one of the people familiar with the matter.
This could involve partnering with a bank or creating its own services, the person added, pointing to the experience that Architect had in the financial services sector as an opportunity to grow the OnlyFans revenues.
San Francisco-based Architect launched in 2020 to provide asset-backed lending to tech companies.
Packer and OnlyFans declined to comment. Architect and Lessin did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Packer, the son of media magnate Kerry Packer, is an active investor in the technology sector having bought and sold positions in companies including Nvidia, Meta, Amazon and Taiwan’s Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company in recent years.
The investments, made via his Consolidated Press International Holdings vehicle, have also included gambling companies such as sports betting group Flutter — since sold — and Australia-listed poker machine maker Light & Wonder, as well as energy stocks.
Lessin was an early Facebook employee and he has since made a name for himself as a seed-stage investor, including being one of the earliest investors in payment app Venmo.
